Survivors set to testify RCMP mishandled abuse allegations at day school in Burns Lake, B.C.

WARNING: This story contains potentially distressing details about experiences at federal Indian Day Schools.

Survivors of a northern British Columbia day school who claim RCMP mishandled the investigation into their allegations of historic abuse will have their complaint heard by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal starting Monday, more than a decade after the original investigation was closed.

In 2012, survivors from the Burns Lake First Nation and Lake Babine Indian Band brought allegations of historic physical, emotional and sexual abuse at the former Immaculata Day School in Burns Lake to Prince George RCMP, who closed the investigation without criminal charges. 

Six of the survivors filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission in 2017, alleging systemic racism and conflicts of interest. They claim the three individuals at the centre of the allegations influenced the RCMP's investigation and decision not to lay charges.

The RCMP has denied any bias, conflict of interest or mishandling of the investigation.

"We will have representatives at the tribunal but we will not be providing a comment during the proceedings," spokesperson Madonna Saunderson wrote in an email to CBC Sunday evening.

The name of the only living individual accused is under a publication ban the tribunal ordered in 2022 to prevent them "undue hardship."

The tribunal hearing has been mired in unexplained delays since it was ordered in January 2020. In that time, three survivors, including lead plaintiff Cathy Woodgate, Emma Williams and Ann Tom, and one witness, Roddy Joseph, have died.

'We were scared'

Williams's sister Dorothy Williams, 60, will testify. She attended the school starting as a young child in the late 1960s and says the long wait for justice has forced her to relive painful memories and robbed the deceased survivors of healing she herself hopes to find.

"What it means to me is the memories, the beatings, the screams, the cries from the boiler room… letting that go once and for all," Dorothy told CBC News in an interview.

Dorothy, a member of Lake Babine First Nation, said she is still haunted by memories of being beaten with straps and basketballs, sexually abused and having a bar of soap forcibly taped inside her mouth for speaking her Carrier language.

She said she also saw and heard others, including Emma, being dragged to the school's basement to be strapped and sexually abused. Racist remarks and abuse were a constant at the school, Dorothy said, which closed in 1986.

"I heard screams, I heard cries from children from that boiler room," said Dorothy. "We avoided walking close to the boiler room entrance. We were scared."

Tribunal member Colleen Harrington will hear testimony from the three surviving complainants and 20 witnesses in Burns Lake until May 12.

The rest of the 10-week hearing will take place virtually.

'A lifetime of talking about it'

The Canadian government forced an estimated 200,000 Indigenous children in Canada to attend more than 700 state and Church-run day schools since the mid-1800s as tools of assimilation into white colonial society.

Unlike in residential schools, children lived with their families while attending day schools, but they also experienced physical, sexual and emotional abuse.

Day school survivors were not included in the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission, or in the 2006 Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement with the federal government. 

Immaculata, which opened in 1950, was also not included in a 2019 day school class action settlement with the federal government.

Wilf Adam, former chief of the Lake Babine First Nation, says the hearing is long-overdue.

"With residential schools, the victims are six feet under. The victims at Immaculata School, a lot of them are still alive," Adam told CBC News. "There are still a lot of members who are still hurting, some have passed away, and there's still unfinished business that needs to be rectified."

If the tribunal finds the RCMP violated the survivors' human rights, it could order remedies including requiring the force to compensate survivors or conduct a new investigation. 

Adam says the RCMP should apologize to the survivors and conduct a new investigation to see if criminal charges are possible, regardless of the tribunal's decision.

Dorothy Williams, who is an educator and teacher of the Carrier language, will bring a teddy bear she received at a healing retreat with her sister and a framed picture of Emma with her to the tribunal hearings.

"It's a lifetime of healing, a lifetime of talking about it," she said. "Like Emma said, I don't want to carry it around like a heavy suitcase."

Support is available for anyone affected by their experience at day schools and residential schools.

There is a Federal Indian Day Schools health support services line for people in B.C. at 1-877-477-0775 and a number for each province and territory listed here.

A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for former students and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.

Mental health counselling and crisis support is also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the Hope for Wellness hotline at 1-855-242-3310 or by online chat at www.hopeforwellness.ca.